Second Chances
by ChrisTheK9Writer
Summary: Katie, a dog who ran away after an incident with her father, is found by Kodi and is taken in. Meanwhile, Steele, her father, wants to make amends with Katie and is searching for her. The two come across each other, which leads to a fight that reignites Steele's hatred for Balto. Eventually, Steele has to decide between making amends with Katie or getting his vengence on Balto.
1. Chapter 1

**AUTHOR'S NOTES: Yeah, Chris is back. Hooray. Whatever...**

**Now, sarcasm aside, this is going to be a re-write of a fic I started almost a year ago called "Katie's New Life". I began to struggle with it at around chapter 4, and I struggled since. Why? Because I had issues with continuing the plot, and that snowballed until Chapter 12. Chapter 13 ended up being unwritable, so I decide to put the story out of it's misery and start all over again. I have an entirely new plot, although certain plot elements from the original will be retained, and in retaining those elements, the first few chapters (this one and likely chapter 2-3) will be quite similar to early chapters in the original. The cast for the original remain relatively unchanged, but with a few minor characters added on.**

**ANYWAY...enjoy. And reviews are way more than welcome.**

**~Chris**

* * *

It was a cold, blustery winter evening outside the Alaskan town of Nome. Outside the town could be found a young, stray two-year-old dog by the name of Katie. She was famished, as her last meal was an arctic hare she had hunted three days before. She was seeking shelter for the night, as it was cold, and when she heard a voice call out to her.

"Is anybody there?" the voice called out.

"I said is anybody there?" the voice called out again. All Katie could think to do was to stand where she was. All of a sudden, a wolf-like figure appeared from the snow. Katie then went into a defensive figure. As the figure got closer, Katie noticed that although the figure seemed wolf-like in structure, it looked more like a dog.

"If anybody's there, I don't want to hurt you" the voice called out again. Katie then growled harder, not knowing who the figure was.

"Well what's your name?" the figure asked.

"My name's Katelyn." Katie aggressively responded. "What do you want?"

"Nothing," the figure replied back. "Katelyn…that's a nice name, but I'll call you Katie if it's okay with you." responded the figure.

"You can call me Katie if you want to" was all Katie said, calming down a bit.

"My name's Kodiak, Kodi for short. I came only because I had a feeling that one of our kind might be outside, freezing in the cold." he responded.

"Well it's nice that you felt concerned enough to go outside in this terrible weather" Katie calmly replied.

"Come with me. You look like someone who needs something to eat and somewhere to sleep," offered Kodi.

"How am I supposed to know that you're going to try something on me?" questioned Katie.

"Look. I want to take you to where I live. No tricks, games, other stuff, anything," replied Kodi. Katie thought for a little bit before reluctantly responding, "Okay, I'll go with you, but no funny business, okay?"

"That's good enough for me," said Kodi. The two then headed towards Nome, where Kodi lived. After half an hour of mostly silence, the two canines arrived at Mr. Simpson's house.

"Hold on a minute Katie. I'm going to call Mr. Simpson," explained Kodi.

"Who?" wondered Katie.

"Mr. Simpson. He's my and a couple other dog's then howled loudly to get Mr. Simpson's attention. Within a couple of seconds, Mr. Simpson opened the door.

"Where have you been for all this time, Kodi?" wondered Mr. Simpson. He then looked and saw an unfamiliar black dog next to Kodi.

"So I see you found yourself a girlfriend, I see," chuckled Mr. Simpson. Kodi gave him a blank stare while Katie growled. Mr. Simpson then looked at Katie and saw that she had no tags.

"No tags. Must be a stray," thought Mr. Simpson. "Guess I have to take her in for now." Both dogs happily barked at the idea. Mr. Simpson then opened the door wide so both dogs could go through. Once both dogs got inside, Mr. Simpson left the post office in order to retrieve a bag of dog food. Right as that happened, a group of dogs entered the post office, each carrying a sizeable amount of food.

"Hey Kodi," said a grey female dog that resembled Katie. "You missed out on quite a buffet today.

"Yeah," said another dog, a large malamute with dark-grey fur. "The butcher had quite a bit of meat leftover for us today."

"Quite a bit of meat even for you," said a brown dog who himself was a bit chubby.

"Hey' you're not exactly lean yourself" said another dog, a female dog vaguely resembling the first grey female next to the malamute.

"My man isn't fat, he's just fluffy," responded a female dog resembling Kodi.

"Guys," interrupted Kodi. "This is Katie. I found her when I wandered away from you guys."

"Well hi Katie," said another dog in the group, a male resembling a tan German shepherd.

"Um…hi," responded Katie, not knowing anything about the dog.

"Katie," said Kodi. "He's my friend…well they all are. They won't hurt you."

"Well okay then…," mumbled Katie.

"You mind if we introduce ourselves to you?" asked the Kodi-resembling female.

"Well honestly, I would, but I'm a bit tired from being a stray, and I haven't slept well in a long while," responded Katie. "Perhaps tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay then," said the female dog.

"Well, would you at least like some of our meat?" asked another one of the female dogs.

"Sure," replied Katie.

Everyone in the group of dogs gave Katie some their meat, and Katie ate all of it in delight. When she was finished eating, the group of dogs left to go to their various homes. Kodi however stayed behind with Katie.

"Katie," said Kodi.

"Yes?"asked Katie.

"Mind sleeping in the boiler room tonight?" inquired Kodi. "It's a warm place to sleep at night."

"Sure, why not?" replied Katie.

Kodi then led Katie towards the boiler room, where Katie picked out a warm spot close to the furnace and began. Kodi picked a spot on the opposite side of the room as to not beg for outside questions. Kodi began to sleep as well, woke up just to see if Katie was asleep.

"You asleep Katie?" asked Kodi.

"I was starting to," responded Katie tiredly. "Why do you ask?"

"Just wondering," replied Kodi.

"Okay…" said Katie as she drifted back to sleep.

As the two began to fall asleep, Kodi began to have thoughts about Katie. Who was she? Where did she come from? How did she survive in the wild? Kodi put these thoughts aside as he decided it was better to get some sleep than to keep himself awake asking these questions. He'd likely find out tomorrow anyway. But for now, it was better for Kodi to get some sleep.

And sleep he did.


	2. Chapter 2

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: This took longer than expected. At least I finally finished this part. I'm hoping to have th next few chaters done before school starts again.**

* * *

In contrast to the night before, a rather calm and bright morning ascended above Nome. Katie and Kodi were still asleep, resting peacefully. Kodi woke up first, and seeing Katie still asleep, he decided to wake up Katie as well.

"Katie?" whispered Kodi, not trying to disturb Katie too much from her sleep.

"Yes?" yawned Katie, still halfway asleep.

"It's morning," answered Kodi. "It's time to wake up."

"Okay," mumbled Katie, still asleep. She took her time in getting up, and stretched out when she did.

"Now, time for some breakfast," said the black dog.

"Atta girl," said Kodi to himself.

The two dogs went to the mail dogs' feeding station, where the bowls for all of the mail dogs were already set. Mr. Simpson was putting away the food for the dogs when he noticed Kodi and Katie coming in. Hurriedly he set up a bowl for Katie.

"Oops, I forgot to set up a bowl for you," joked Mr. Simpson as he poured food into a bowl for Katie. When Mr. Simpson finished setting up a bowl for her and stepped out of the way, Katie began to eat her food. When she finished, she looked up at Mr. Simpson awaiting his next move. Mr. Simpson removed the empty bowl from in front of Katie and put it aside to be washed later. Mr. Simpson then left to go to another room and came back with a black collar and leash. He fitted the collar around Katie's neck and then attacked the leash onto the collar. Katie figured out that she was going to be walked somewhere, location unknown, and started to walk towards the front entrance when Mr. Simpson stood up. Mr. Simpson began to walk as well and caught up to Katie, and Katie backed down in response to let him lead her to wherever they were going. It was a short walk, and the Katie soon found herself in a waiting room. There, she could hear Mr. Simpson talking to another person about how she was found the day before, and a few other things. Then Mr. Simpson walked backed Katie and bent over so their faces were level with each other's.

"Katie, you're going to have to give you a couple shots," said Mr. Simpson. Katie tilted her head over, knowing what Mr. Simpson was talking about, but wondering as to why.

"If you're wondering why," started Mr. Simpson. "It's only because we found you as a stray." Katie rotated her head back to erect.

Right then, the vet came out and called for Mr. Simpson, who stood up and walked Katie to a room. There, Mr. Simpson lifted Katie up onto a slightly padded wooden bed. There, Katie noticed that the vet was carrying two syringes.

"Now girl, I'm just going to be giving you two shots; an anesthetic and a rabies shot," said the vet. "I'm just giving you the anesthetic first so you don't have to feel the rabies shot"

"Well I don't see why he can't give me just the rabies shot," thought Katie. "I'm still going to feel the pain when I wake up."

"Now stay still girl," spoke the vet. "This won't hurt if you don't move." Right then, The vet stuck a needle in Katie's front leg. Katie felt a slight pain in her leg before beginning to fall out in a few minutes.

About an half hour later, Katie woke up, slightly dazed, and with a pain in her chest. She quickly went up into the lie-down position. After a few minutes, the vet helped Katie off of the bed, put a leash around Katie, and led her to Mr. Simpson. After the vet handed Katie back to Mr. Simpson, Mr. Simpson led Katie out of the Vet's office and back to the postal office, where he let Katie off her leash to roam free.

"Now go along now Katie" said Mr. Simpson. Katie barked and went off in search for Kodi and his friends. She roamed Nome for about a few minutes until she saw him on the outskirts on the southern side of the town.

"Hey guys," greeted Katie.

"Oh, hi Katie," replied Kodi. "How're you feeling?"

"Well my chest hurts like a bi- "responded Katie.

"Rabies shot?" inquired Kodi.

"Yep," answered Katie.

"My dad had to get those shots" started Kodi. "Said getting those shot were one of the worst experiences in his life"

"Why so?" asked Katie.

"It's a long story…" stated Kodi.

"Oh, I see," said Katie.

"So, do you want to meet my friends," asked Kodi.

"Sure, I'd love to," replied Katie.

"Well first of all the other red dog that kinda looks like me is my sister Jessica," started Kodi.

"Hey

Kodi then introduced Katie to all of his friends; first was the female resembling Kodi whose name was Jessica and was Kodi's sister. Then there was the grey dog resembling Katie by the name of Dusty, another gray female by the name of Shira, and her boyfriend Ralph, the grey chubby dog. The brown cubby dog was Kirby, and the German Shepherd lookalike was Jonathan. There was also a yellow dog with a brown spot over her right eye that Katie had never seen before; her name was Delilah.

"Well it is nice to know all of your names now," said Katie.

"Mind talking a bit about yourself?" asked Delilah. "I'd be nice to know a bit about you."

"You look as if you'd have quite the story to tell yourself," continued Kirby, referring to a scar that was on Katie's face.

"Sure, why not?" replied Katie. "So back in my old town, my mother hated my father a lot,"

"Oh, and why was that?" asked Shira.

"He left her for another dog while she was pregnant," explained Katie. "After that, she never wanted to see him again. She told us that if he ever tried to come back to her, not to let him."

"Well that seems a bit irrational," commented Ralph.

"So the day came where I did come across my father. I did as my mother told me to and in turn, I got this scar over my eye. I ran away, which now seems irrational, but at the time, my emotions were high. I got lost in the woods. A wolf was nice enough to leach me how to hunt, and after about a year or so, Kodi here found me."

"Who was the wolf who taught you how to hunt?" asked Kirby.

"More importantly, who was your father?" inquired Jessica. "That I'd like to know."

"The wolf's name was Emily, that she told me," answered Katie. "My father's name was Steele, according to my mom."

Everyone gasped a bit when they heard that familiar name roll off of Katie's tongue.

"You mean the Steele?" asked Ralph.

"What did he look like?" questioned Shira.

"He looked quite a bit like me, a dark-coated dog," replied Katie.

"Well that's him alright," responded Delilah.

"Why does he interest you guys so much?" inquired Katie.

"Well for starters, he doesn't have such a great history here," started Kodi. "A few years back before I was born, he almost killed a number of children out of pride."

"Why so?" asked Katie.

"He hated my dad, who was the town's only hope of saving the children," explained Kodi. "…just because he was part-wolf."

"For shame…"said Katie.

"Well after the other dogs found out, we socially exiled him, and he just left," finished Kodi.

"Well good," responded Katie. "At least I hopefully won't have to see him again."

"Same," replied Kodi. Everyone else also replied in agreement to Katie.

After their discussion about Steele, Katie and her newfound friends talked for a while before deciding to play around for a little bit. After a couple hours of playing, they decided it was time to go their separate ways for the days. The evening hours went by rather quickly for Katie, and after eating another meal courteous of the butcher, she soon found herself fast asleep again.


	3. Chapter 3

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well that was relatively quick for me. I have no idea if I can keep up the writing streak. Anyway, relatively short chapter here.**

* * *

About a week had passed since Katie had been taken into Nome. In that time, Katie had gotten to know most of the dogs in Nome She had also gotten to know Balto, the town's here. After the two had gotten to know each other, ad after the two told each other their respective stories, Balto agreed to keep Steele away from Katie should he return to Nome.

Meanwhile in the outskirts of Nome wandered another black dog, this one a malamute with blue eyes. His fur was rough and scruffy, obviously from wandering in the wild for years. He had just came across the town and was looking for a sign displaying the town's name. He soon came across such a sign and read it as "Nome".

"Nome…I've had some good times here…" reminisced the black dog. "…hopefully they've forgotten about that dark moment...hopefully, they can at least forgive me"

* * *

The dog continued walking until he saw another black dog, a female, who looked quite like himself, but this one with brown eyes. The male black dog recognized the other dog and called out her name.

"Katie, Katie!" he yelled, hoping she would recognize him. Katie did, but she didn't respond in the way he had hoped for. Instead, Katie took off running, and as a result, the male ran after her.

Katie was running as fast as she could, with where she wanted to head in mind. She ran until she came across a house near the other edges of the town, and immediately ran inside.

"Balto, Balto!" called Katie. "Are you here?" Balto was inside, along with his mate Jenna.

"What is it Katie?" inquired Balto.

"It's…it's…" stammered Katie, trying to catch her breath. "…it's Steele. I saw him."

"Oh boy…" commented Jenna, predicting the upcoming situation.

"Oh my…" responded Balto. "Where did you see him?"

"Near the outskirts on the other side of town," answered Katie. "He saw me and took after me."

"Well I think it's best that I stay by you for the next couple of hours," said Balto.

"Same here" replied Katie.

* * *

Steele was back to wandering around the outer portions of Nome, still in search of Katie. He had began to wonder where she had gone to when he saw her again. He tried to ran up to her, but instead, Steele received another unpleasant surprise, this one in the form of a certain brown wolf dog.

"Stay away from her," commanded Balto.

"Huh...what?" said Steele, confused at the situation.

"I don't want to see you, Dad," said Katie.

"So stay away from her now," demanded Balto, now growling.

"But you don't get it," tried to explain Steele.

"What don't you get about go away," retorted Balto.

"But I only want to see my daughter," said Steele.

"Don't go near her," said Balto, who then jumped at Steele.

"I don't want to fight you," explained Steele.

"Go away, or else I'll fight you," threatened Balto.

Now Steele found himself in a predicament. It was either he go away and lose a chance at seeing is daughter, or face fighting this brown wolf dog. However, it didn't take long for him to come to a decision.

"No…" answered Steele. "I'm not letting you get in my way." Steele then ran towards Katie, much to her dismay.

"You're going to regret that," said Balto, who then grabbed Steele's tail.

"Ow!" yelped Steele.

"I warned you!" yelled Balto, who then went for Steele's leg.

"Stop it!" yelled Steele.

Steele had had enough of the wolf dog. The fact that he was keeping him away from his daughter was making Steele angry, but he didn't want to fight at the time, nor was he in the condition to. However, Steele decided that he wasn't going to let the wolf dog get in the way of his daughter, so he tackled Balto down. This in turn only led to Balto knocking Steele off and going for his front arm. Steele then decided that it wasn't worth fighting the wolf dog.

"Okay, okay!" yelled Steele. "I'll just go now, okay?:"

"And just go," responded Balto.

Steele then ran off, until Katie and the brown wolf dog were out of his sight.

"Thanks Balto," said Katie.

""No problem," replied Balto.

* * *

Steele continued running for a few minutes until he decided to stop. He then turned around and looked at the trail he had left behind. Upon looking at the trail, Steele began to think about the scene that had just taken place. The wolf dog he had just fought with seemed familiar to him. His fur, eyes and voice all too familiar. Thinking further on the wolf dog, Steele though that the wolf dog seemed familiar to him, familiar as an old foe of his, a foe of the name of Balto. Upon further thinking, Steele soon made the connection between Balto, his old foe, and the wolf dog he lost to today.

"Balto," said Steele. "That little son of a wolf, I'm going to kill him for getting between me and my daughter."


	4. Chapter 4

**AUTHOR's NOTE: This would've been submitted sooner, but I was in NY for 11 days and I didn't have time to work on this until yesterday, when I finished this. Anyway, just a short chapter, but stil an important one to the story.  
****5'll come eventually.**

**~Chris**

* * *

It was the day after Steele had his altercation with Balto. He was lying on the ground, just waiting for anything. He figured he couldn't go into town, presuming that word had gone around that he was back. Steele figured that if word had gone around, there'd be few, if any, who'd would attack him or call for someone else to do so if he was spotted. He was going to catch a few more Z's, but he heard a voice calling for him.

"Steele, Steele," called a familiar female voice. "Is that you?"

"Huh?" mumbled Steele, before he opened to see a black, grey, and white malamute before him.

"Storm?" said Steele.

"It is you!" said Storm.

"I missed you sis!' said Steele.

"What happened?" asked Storm, who could see the marks from Steele's encounter with Balto.

"It's a long story…" answered Steele. "Mind if I stay at your place for a while?"

"But nobody in town wants to see you," replied Storm. "Plus, my mate, he really doesn't want to see you after what you did."

"Sis, I've put that behind me, and I regret those actions," responded Steele. "I just need some food and shelter."

"Well…okay" said Storm. "After all, you are my brother, and I can't let family suffer."

"Thanks sis," replied Steele. "I owe you one."

* * *

Not long after, Steele and Storm had arrived at where Storm lived. Storm checked to see if anyone was in the front room before she went in with Steele trailing behind. Steele went into the kitchen to look for any food that was available. Fortunately, for Steele, there was a bowl full of dry food in the kitchen, from which Steele then ate. After eating his breakfast, he and Storm began to talk.

"So what brings you back here," inquired Storm.

"Oh, I'm just looking for someone," answered Steele.

"Oh, and whom would that be?" asked Storm.

"Like I said before it's a really long story," replied Steele.

"You can tell me Steele," said Storm. "I'm your sis, you can tell me anything."

"Well okay," responded Steele. "but, it's rather complicated."

"Just get to it," replied Storm.

"After I was run out of town, I soon found myself in a different town," began Steele. "There, I fell in love with another dog, a husky named Diane. Unfortunately, things became complicated when I fell for another dog by the name of Amy too."

"So what happened?" inquired Storm.

"I told Diane that I had fallen in love with another dog and that I'd chosen to live with Amy, but Diane told me she was pregnant with my pups and flipped out," explained Steele. "I offered to at least take care of our pups, but she wouldn't let me go anywhere near her."

"So what did you do?" asked Storm.

"I lived with the Amy for a few months, but I couldn't stop thinking about Diane, so I broke up with Amy, who didn't take it too well. I tried to find Diane, but I came across Katie instead," elaborated Steele. "I asked her if she knew who Diane and Katie told me that Diane was her mother and that she still didn't want to see me. We had an altercation, and in trying to defend myself I hit her, and she freaked out."

"Oh my," said Storm. "So I assume you're here to try and find her?"

"Yeah," answered Steele. "I saw her here and I wanted to apologize to her, but I ended up getting into a scrap with that wild mongrel Balto because of it."

"Well that's not good at all," commented Storm.

"Tell me about it," replied Steele. " I wasn't even thinking about that wolf dog until after the fight."

At that moment, a yellow and brown Chinook walked into the room.

"Hey Storm…wait…what is HE doing here?" said the Chinook, who saw Steele talking to Storm.

"Kaltag?!" yelled Steele, a bit surprised.

"Well for your information, he's only here to find his daughter," defended Storm.

"I still don't want him in this house, nevertheless in town," replied Kaltag.

"Can't you even let him stay for a while?" yelled Storm. "He's my own brother for Pete's sake!"

"No Storm, I don't want him here at all." said Kaltag.

"Do you even realize what your saying? My brother needs a place to stay while he finds the opportunity to apologize to his daughter, and all you're doing is making it harder for him to do so," rebuffed Storm. "I thought you had a heart when I became mates with you, but it looks like I was wrong about that."

Those words stunned Kaltag. Never had he heard Storm say those words to him in his life. Kaltag had never thought of himself as heartless, but the fact that hiss own mate called him as such struck him heard. He began to think about the current situation and realized that Storm might as well have been right. What if his daughter had ran away and he had needed a place to stay while he searched for her? Surely someone with a heart would let him stay in.

"Fine," replied Kaltag. "But once he apologizes to his daughter, he's on his own."

"Thanks honey," responded Storm. "I knew you'd come through."

"Seriously Kaltag, thanks," said Steele. "I really owe you one."

After Steele thanked Kaltag, he left the house to continue searching for his daughter Katie.


End file.
